Hewitt upbeat despite Captains Knock’s tough draw

GOULBURN pacer Captains Knock’s (Captaintreacherous) poor luck with barrier draws in big races has continued through the current Brisbane Inter Dominion harness racing series with the entire drawing the widest in gate seven in the sixth heat at Albion Park on Saturday night.

Trained and driven by Brad Hewitt, the rich money earner produced a mighty performance to finish second behind one of the series favourites Don Hugo last Saturday after starting from the widest gate and racing without cover over the 2138m trip.

Captains Knock was caught wide going into the first turn leaving Hewitt with no other option but to push forward to find the cheap seat outside the leader, which presented Don Hugo with a perfect trail on his coat tails.

To his credit, the son of Captaintreacherous went down fighting to only be beaten by half a length by Don Hugo in a 1:52.4 mile rate.

“His effort was super last week,” said Hewitt.

“I was really proud of his effort and he earned some vital points in the series by running second.

“He seems to enjoy the environment up here in Queensland and really thrives in the warmer conditions.

“I knew exactly where Luke and Don Hugo were in running, and they just had too good a trip for us to hold them off.

“Unfortunately, we will have to do it the hard way again this week, the poor bugger just has no luck with barrier draws.

“Consoling factors though are that we won’t have Don Hugo or Leap To Fame to contend with and also the fact this heat is over the longer 2680m journey which hopefully will help us get up towards the lead without having to work too hard.

“A win would be great, but we need to be thereabouts to gain valuable points.”

Hewitt is also chasing the riches with his two-year-old Rewatch in the $500,000 Group 1 Protostar.

A winner of two races from his five race starts, Rewatch started favourite in the Bathurst Gold Crown final where he finished second.

Following a brief spell, his two runs since resuming have been quite good, the latest being last Saturday in the Wayne Wilson Classic against a similar field when he finished a creditable fourth behind Fire And Passion, the likely favourite in this weekend’s Protostar.

For complete race entries, click here.

by Michael Dumesny, for HRNSW